Temple Street Productions, the producers of the award-winning, critically-acclaimed, Orphan Black, today announced the creation of a new distribution division, which will grow the company’s operations into the U.S. and internationally. Jon Rutherford, a veteran in the industry, was named President of Distribution. The announcement was made today by company Co-Presidents, David Fortier and Ivan Schneeberg, and Managing Director, John Young.
The distribution division’s announcement dovetails with the recently announced worldwide content deal with Netflix for Lost & Found Music Studios, a half hour series about a group of talented musicians who struggle to find their authentic sound and place in the world as they hone their craft at a prestigious music studio. The series was commissioned by Family Channel in Canada and will debut in early 2024, with Netflix premiering shortly thereafter as an original series for kids in all global territories outside of Canada and the UK.
This is the first step in the previously announced strategy to expand content production, distribution operations and strategic acquisitions. Rutherford will run the distribution division with an eye to expand content distribution globally and across all output platforms. Rutherford will report directly to John Young.
Prior to Temple Street, Rutherford was EVP of Distribution and Business Development for Tricon Films & Television, where he oversaw the operation of Tricon’s international distribution company, including all worldwide sales and acquisitions as well as growing its catalogue to over 3,000 hours of high quality content across all genres. In addition, Rutherford oversaw Tricon’s business development, which included the company’s kids & family division, establishing new broadcast partnerships in factual production, and expanding into broadcast channel distribution, including an exclusive output agreement with AMC Networks to represent all of IFC’s original scripted series, including The Spoils of Babylon and Maron, as well as representing AMC Studios’ original dramatic mini-series, The Divide. Jon was also responsible for the international launch of Participant Media's US cable channel, PIVOT. Prior to joining Tricon, Jon was head of distribution at Portfolio Entertainment, and head of operations at Technicolor Creative Services.